Would you consider it ILLEGAL for a restaurant to SERVE STUDENTS during SCHOOL HOURS?

[AviatorTom]

Keeping Kids in School...

In Baltimore, Maryland USA, it is illegal for a restaurant to serve food to minors during school hours. The law is in place to try to keep kids in school, and restaurants can be fined $500 for violating it. A pending modification to the law would raise the fine to $1000.

Council considers increasing fine to $1K for businesses that serve minors during school hours

So, kids in Baltimore are not allowed to go to a nearby restaurant for lunch or during school breaks like recess.

What do you think of this law?

Updates

+1 y

When I was in high school, many years ago (not in Baltimore) if we had a free period, or for lunch, we often went across the street to a small snack bar style restaurant, to pick up a drink, a sandwich and some snacks. I guess that would be illegal in Baltimore.

[Alli39]

Look Baltimore is complex because it's situation is... not great. But I really don't agree with this one. At my school you either literally could not leave officially during hours unless you were signed out, or had permission anyway (ex. for work study) and could do what you wanted with the time as long as you ended up where you needed. More over, some kinds are home schooled, etc. There's no real way of the restaurant knowing the kid is or isn't allowed to be in school and they really shouldn't have to track that.

[Red_Arrow]

Are they holding the school to the same law? Are they closing the cafeteria during school hours and arresting all the "lunch ladies"? Because the effect is the same: the students are not in class while eating in the cafeteria.

If there was a school rule that prohibited students from leaving campus during school hours for their safety, That might be reasonable. And then it is on the students to follow that rule, not nearby businesses. I suppose the next step is to prohibit students from having medical appointments during school hours and arresting doctors who see and treat kids during the day.

[jshm2]

It's a laughable law and often circumnavigated by burger vans and delivery, as the law only covers "on premises".

But it just shows how fucked up America is. They would rather spend time on bullshit laws and curbing freedoms, than actually making lives better.

[musicbrain5]

Absolutely not. Like your update, I also had free periods each semester when I was in grade 11 and 12 (the perks of being a good student, lol). Sometimes I had two free periods in a row. I could drive then, so my friends and I would often go get lunch or coffees at local places.

It's not the city's business regarding why kids are not in school during certain hours of the day. What if the kid is with their parent and they're getting lunch after an appointment, for example? What if the kid is homeschooled and they decided to go out for lunch? Ridiculous, I say.

[OlderAndWiser]

I don't agree with making restaurants serve as truant officers or face civil fines.

[Taffy1234]

I was listening to a radio show yesterday, and the guy said that it wouldn't work if citizens got to vote on every law. He said that some bills are 600 pages, and citizens wouldn't have time.

1. There's a thing called a referendum, and when citizens get to vote on something, the outcome is way different than politicians voting on it.

2. The politicians aren't reading the 600 pages.

3. If your example was put to a referendum vote, the kids could eat anywhere they want, just as long as they got back to class on time.

[BoopBoopBeep]

I had empty periods my senior yeah because I started early at a local magnet school for a class. I obviously wasn't the only one. Plus teacher work days, long holidays. If I"m getting paid $3 plus tips let me tell you how much I want to take time to ID everybody that looks under 21 who comes in. Just more big government overreach. What the kids can't get Micky D's so they'll suddenly stay in school? That logic is..."flawed."

[katiesmuff]

Again always sticking your nose in someone else's business! It would be none of your fucking business why they were in your restaurant and as long as it didn't appear that they were in some kind of distress feed um and forget um.

[Sjoerd85]

This law sounds like something for North Korea... What's next? Perhaps a 'hall pass' for being outside on public streets during school / office hours, followed by a night curfew?

[Dinklex3]

Sounds dumb.

We would sometimes go out during lunch period and some people were also home schooled so I don't know what they’re doing about that

[menina]

I think it makes no sense. Kids need to eat. Unless, they're doing that for the safety since they can't walk alone. If that's the reason, then I understand.

[menina]

*their safety

[Sour-rose]

what the ffff...

if it's my business, it's called getting money out of those little shits. And money is money, no matter who pays for it.

[purplepoppy]

Fantastic idea, I'd extend it only serve kids after school hours if they get good grades.

[exitseven]

In Baltimore the poor storekeepers will starve.

[summiter]

It should not be illegal. What if the kid is out on break or had to leave school with permission for an errand or appointment

[SnowedIn]

Just another stupid law. We waste our time and resources with laws like this instead of real issues.

[Drumlin2001]

Dont agree with it. Seems an overstretch of power. How bout the homeschooled? Or on holiday from elsewhere? How does a restaurant vet who should be in school or not?

[exitseven]

The fact that exactly zero students in Baltimore could pass the math proficiency test (that is ZERO with a Z) the law does not help very much.

[Siri137]

So what are the students supposed to do instead? Starve?

[WhitneySnow]

I would hate this law if I had to deal with it

[gorydetails]

I’m glad that Baltimore has solved all other problems in their city. Isn’t it so weird they want to control what your children eat?

[AngryCarl2]

Illegal for the restaurant? Not in the UK. I don't know what crazy laws you Yanks have introduced.

[EttBraNamn]

Yet another American thing I can’t grasp. Here we have free school lunch but sometimes we went to restaurants if we had extra long lunch break some days just to do something nice together

[John_Doesnt]

That's ridiculous and seems unconstitutional. Many kids are homeschooled and a kid could be sick from school or just taking the day off. It's not the kids who suffer either, it's the parents who are too tired to cook who have to suffer.

[Jersey2]

What about hime schooled kids? What about families who are passing through on the Interstate highway and get off for lunch?

Uncontrollable kids should be suspended or thrown out of school in order to save the majority of kids.

[Juxtapose]

More proof that the USA citizenry is soul crushingly legislated by the big brother state.

[Static_In_The_Attic]

What happens if the students are on a field trip & stop for lunch at a restaurant during school hours?

[Likes2drive]

Kind of stupid in a way because what if they are out because of a doctors appointment and having lunch after or what if they are homeschooled

[Andres77]

Sure, fine restaurants but let crime run rampant, because “systemic racism”

[DizzyDesii]

Thats hella crazy

[goaded]

Don't you get food at school?

[Sparkie460]

No it shouldn't be illegal

[msc545]

Very stupid law.

[msc545]

This is the sort of law that is authored and passed by Authoritarians who want to look "tough" for voters. Fuck them all.

[gothbxtch]

don’t like it